Week 17 Dec. 27 - Chickasaw National Recreation Area and Lake of the Arbuckles

Total Distance: At least 10 miles
Elevation Gain: A few hundred feet
Time: 11:45 am - 5:15 pm
Weather: Cool, chilly Oklahoma December day.  Warm in the sun, cold with the wind.

This was another great hike in my beautiful home state of Oklahoma.  I know technically, this was not a weekend hike, but Christmas was Saturday, and the family time was not going to allow me to get out until today.  I am ok with my integrity, if you are.

I was happy this hike was on Monday because that allowed my friend who lives in Ardmore to be able to join me.  She is a gorgeous, fun woman, and we have not been able to hang out a lot over the last few years.  I did get to see her over Thanksgiving, and she is an avid reader of the blog.  We planned on hiking over the Christmas break and this was that hike.

First, it was a short hour and half drive to the trailhead from my parents, made 30 minutes longer by me not bringing a map.  We found an entrance to the park, but it was not to any trailhead.  My friend busted out her iPhone, and we were still close enough to the towns of Sulphur and Davis to get to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area website.  We got back on track and were shortly at the correct park entrance.  As we drove in, we saw the road to Veterans Lake was closed.  This was, unfortunately, the road we needed to get to the trails.  We parked at the campsite and were off to figure out how to get to the trails.

I did not want to get a fine from some aggressive park ranger, so we tried to find a way around the road closure.  That was a bust, so we said, "screw it. Let's walk on to the trails."  We went around the road closed and hazardous area signs and walked along the road.  We did not see any reason for the closure and eventually made it to the trails.

The hike was great.  We walked and walked and walked.  We passed so many armadillos that we renamed the trail from trail 1 to Armadillo Trail.  The sun was shining so brilliantly; it was great to feel its rays hit my face.  I could swear I felt my body producing vitamin D.  We also saw so many different animal tracks in the mud. Some were recognizable, others were completely foriegn to me.  I have to learn more about tracking.

It was 2:15 pm before we even saw a glimmer of the lake.  We continued on and finally came to a great view of a spectacularly quiet lake tucked in behind the Arbuckle Mountains.  We had a delicious snack or two and got up to walk back.  We took a different trail back, but continued to see armadillos, tracks, and some beautiful scenery.

We got back to the road around 5:00 pm.  It was a great day hike with a great friend.  I couldn't have asked for a better day.

Orchid: The whole hike really, since I was hiking with my best friend.  But if there was one moment I could relive, it would be the snack break at the Lake of the Arbuckles.

Onion: Getting back to the road after hiking all day.  I knew the day was over.

Picture:

Google Map